Questions of cultural, political and personal decolonisation in Australia and New Caledonia are the focus of the bold and breathtaking Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry. Inspired by the New Caledonian referendum on independence and Australia’s long-running debate on constitutional recognition for First Nations people, this energetic inter-cultural performance examines the ways dance has been shaped by colonisation.

Six dancers express the anger, longing, frustration and despair over years of talk that has yet to get the results the Indigenous people of both countries want. With rapid-fire contemporary movement, acrobatic street styles and traditional Indigenous dance, the performers move across the stage to the backing of electronic, techno, future soul and ambient soundscapes.

Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry captures the forces of decolonisation through dance – the drive for independence, the collapse of old systems and the vulnerability of a future standing alone. Intense and visceral, the movement gathers into a driving pace and an urgent call to be heard.

Funding: Marrugeku is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its art funding and advisory body; and the WA State Government through the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.
Commissioning: Le Dernier Appel / The Last Cry is co-commissioned by Centre Culturel Tjibaou (New Caledonia), Carriageworks (Australia), Théâtre National de Chaillot (France), Le Manège- Scène National Maubeuge (France) and the City of Melbourne, through Arts House.
Image by: Prudence Upton

Meat Market acknowledges the traditional land upon which we are located, of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and pay our respect to Elders both past and present and, through them, to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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